Mike, . I reluctantly sent some photos to him and he was excited. Whew. Next I have to experiment with different glazes- I normally use single glazes for exterior, then potentially another for interior- the details in this one (as well as the Art Swap one) requires a different approach. Slightly nervous about glazes running all over where they shouldn't.

Looking good. Forks do well for making wood grain slashes. Be careful not to make them too deep because glaze will not always stay in where you put it. Sanding when its dry works best with mesh see through sand "paper" its not really paper at all. Wendy
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Started on some new pieces (and an old one) today, after devoting most clay time to the Art Swap piece. Made my first tile- a 'Stachetiki face. I hope to use this tile as my first (practice) casting piece. Pretty simple, but plan on trying some crazy glaze combinations. Will let this firm up for a few days, then get to carving a bit more into it. Wendy, thanks for the wood texturing advice. The fork is a great idea. What kind of "sand paper" are you talking about? Is it more a clay tool than a hardware store item?

Finally got to glazing CupTiki- my concept of a paper coffee cup (w/ sleeve), tiki-fied. It has an orange glaze for the face/ sleeve, then a glossy white interior and exterior. Here's a post-glazing, pre-firing image. This hand built piece was done a while back, the next version of this should look quite a bit better.

Thanks, Mike & Wendy. The sleeve is (permanently) attached to the cup- though a separate tiki sleeve IS a cool idea. I hand built it (using a paper coffee cup as a template) I do want to make one with a lid (next time). It'll be fired to cone 6 at the studio kiln, so we'll see how much it shrinks.

I'm in the coffee business, so prepare yourselves for more tiki-coffee crossovers.

Updates: the Jorge mug is currently being bisque fired- and CupTiki came out of the kiln. Apparently there was some dust (or something else) preventing the orange glaze from sticking in a few areas- I'll reglaze and refire this, hopefully next week.

Updates to the Art Swap piece are in that thread, but here's one photo of the exterior from the glazed version- may not be the final glaze firing, but we'll see....
and one interior photo:

The StacheTiki Tile is waiting for bisque firing, too- after that is done, time to play w/ making a mold (my first one).

Got to glazing "Hello Tiki" for Jorge. Used a Textured Turquoise glaze the exterior (w/ a little lime green for details), plus some pink for the "Hello Kitty" bow. The interior is a lime green. Here's a photo with the glaze still drying (consider it an action shot ("of watching glaze dry")).

I started working on a few new pieces- using the extruder to knock out some cylinders as bases for the mugs. I only have a few pics, but hope to post more later this week. Here's the first cylinder, not very exciting. I tried putting the Art Swap Tile on top of a plaster mold to get it to flatten down a bit- sides had curled up while resting.
I then cut another piece of a cylinder off, and started forming it into a hat/ lid for the mug.

These two pieces are part of the newest mug- which I have high hopes for....

A few different people in the studio gave me advice on making lids, which completely threw me off (especially as I was in the middle of building it). I didn't take extra photos, but it involved trimming the brim and insetting the cylinder into the brim- sort of how an actual hat is made. I scored and slipped them together, then will add another ring on the inside that will fit inside the mug. In retrospect, I should have approached this in a different way. If it doesn't quite work, I'll rebuild the hat form- it's my first lid- using the same clay body, so shrinkage should be the same for both the mug and the lid. In any case, here's my drawing/plan of the piece.

Don't be shocked- it's not a traditional tiki, it's "Rum DMC." Hopefully this won't offend some of the more traditional tiki folks here. Don't worry, the one after Reverend Rum will be more mainstream (tiki-mainstream, that is).

Got working on Reverend Rum today. First, unwrapped all of the pieces, then started shaving down the hat w/ a small rasp. Finally got it to a point that I felt good about.
This is my first making a lid for a cup- I know there are a few ways of approaching this, I went with the one that seemed less likely to screw up. First, I rolled a slab and cut out a wide strip that would fit inside of the hat.
I then scored and slipped it onto the hat interior, leaving a bit exposed to form fit into the mug base. I had to make sure that the hat interior would still be small enough to fit into the base- along with clay shrinkage. Since I'm using the same clay body, I'm hoping it should shrink the same (approximate) percentage. Once it was attached, I checked the fit, making sure there was just a little bit of play (I want it to fit, but don't want it to be too loose, either).
I started first with Reverend Rum's glasses, then added a nose and Marquesan(ish) mouth.
Tiki pendant, arms, ears, and carving to follow....
Feedback, as always, is much appreciated.

More work on Reverend Rum today. First, I started assembling more pieces for the mug. Ears, arms, a tiki pendant, and a few more items.... First I draw them out, then trim them out of a slab. I hold them up against the mug to make sure they're the right size:
Since the clay is fairly wet, the pieces stick on w/o any slip. I've tried to use some more traditional tiki forms, including clasped hands, a Marquesan styled mouth, & more. I take a look to make sure it's not (completely) ridiculous (I know, this is completely subjective):
I also test out other options at this point- since Rev. Rum will be wearing a tiki pendant, I play w/some ideas for the pendant chain. I'm not a fan of this one:
Eventually I decide I'm going to carve out a chain (or possibly extrude strands to make a teeny tiny braided necklace). I score and slip the features onto the mug, as well as adding a frame on the flip side where its name will go. So far, here's the Rev w/ the hat/lid off:
And wearing the hat/lid. Yes, I admit he looks slightly less like Reverend Run, and slightly more like Mr. Peanut (of Planter's Peanut fame) wearing the lid. Hopefully further carving will help this out:

I've tried to change the name of this thread (to give updates for those keeping score), but I'm at a loss. Look forward to hearing any feedback.

Rum DMC continues... I waited a few days for the mug to firm up. It was time to carve its name onto a small panel on the back. I wanted to keep the font similar to the "RUN DMC" one, so printed out the familiar logo and traced them out.
Then I carved out around each letter. It's not an exact typeface match, but I'm happy w/ the look of it- it's definitely more "tiki":
Next was carving Rev Rum's tiki pendant, as well as stamp out a chain around his neck (using two separate tools). I probably should have let this firm up some more, there's a little indentation on the inside of the mug from pressing a little too hard.
As always, would love any feedback. Should this one be cast in a mold?